COVID-19: 186 new infections; 5,166 vaccinated

Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Thursday, announced 186 additional cases of the new coronavirus, increasing confirmed coronavirus cases in Maldives to 17,387.

According to HPA, the 186 new cases include; 162 cases from the greater Male’ region, 14 cases from residential islands outside Male’, and 10 cases from operational resorts.

Meanwhile, 103 additional coronavirus patients were confirmed to have made full recoveries over the last 24 hours, increasing total recoveries to 15,081.

With the new developments, Maldives now has 2,243 active cases.

There are 211 patients in hospitals.

450,943 samples (including repeated samples) have been tested for the new coronavirus to date.

With the 186 new infections this Thursday, 977 people have tested positive over the last one-week period.

February 11: 186 cases

February 10: 100 cases

February 9: 192 cases

February 8: 126 cases

February 7: 127 cases

February 6: 109 cases

February 5: 137 cases

Maldives identified its first coronavirus case on March 7, and declared a state of public health emergency over the pandemic less than a week later on March 12.

While coronavirus cases had initially been restricted to resorts and safaris, and later quarantine facilities holding inbound travelers, Male’ City identified its first coronavirus case on April 15, prompting a city-wide lockdown.

The populous capital quickly emerged as the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Maldives, contributing to the majority of total cases.

56 coronavirus patients have died from complications.

VACCINE DRIVE

Maldives began mass vaccinations against the new coronavirus on February 1.  HPA states 5,166 people were vaccinated on Thursday. Of the 5,166 people, 4,257 were from the greater Male’ region while 909 were from the atolls.

Total 25,327 people have now been inoculated under program; 20,960 from the greater Male’ region and 4,367 from the atolls.

Maldives received a donation of 100,000 doses of the Covishield developed AstraZeneca and Oxford in January and has ordered 700,000 more doses of the same vaccine – which they expect to receive in March. Maldives has also received 10,000 doses of Sinopharm as donations, and China has pledged a donation of 100,000 more doses of the same vaccine – which have yet to arrive in Maldives.

Maldives also expects to receive the first shipment of vaccines from World Health Organization (WHO) this February.